DIY Tropical Wedding, Part 1

For those of you wondering where I've been over the last few weeks, all I have to say is that wedding planning is a pain in the patootie. If there's one thing we've learned through all of this chaos though, it's that the only way to get some things right is to do it yourself. That's why I've designed invitations, favors, several flower arrangements, and even the menus! While marrying my best friend was obviously the best part of the wedding, I also thoroughly enjoyed planning it with a little Rainforest Garden pizazz!


This is only a preview. The real fun will start when we get the real photos back from the wedding photographer. 

Using a combination of homegrown materials and store bought flowers, these chic arrangements ended up being quite affordable. I purchased green trick flowers, Fuji mums, black callas, and green cymbidium orchids, and harvested rhipsalis cuttings and liriope leaves from the garden.

This arrangement was almost entirely homegrown from the garden. The Alocasia leaves, Rhipsalis cuttings and Epicattleya "Rene Marques" spray were all from the garden, and the green cymbidiums and callas were store bought. I had callas in my own garden, but had to purchase some for the quantities I needed.

The favors were all handmade: Rhipsalis cuttings wrapped in "kiwi" ti leaves, inserted into a folded instruction booklet. Here they are lined up before the wedding, and unfolded at the reception.

The cake was from Publix, and I decorated it simply with more green Cymbidium orchids. We ordered six blooms from the florist, but luckily ended up with thirteen of those pricey flowers instead! I think it's a good omen.

Here's the groom's cake. Since it's supposed to be MY cake, I made another simple arrangement with the two remaining elephant ears and the leftover cymbidium.

(After the wedding we were spirited away on our honeymoon to Winter Park and Disney World. Winter Park was awesome, and so was Disney's Animal Kingdom. I shot two big memory cards worth of photos from Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Winter Park, Leu Botanical Gardens, and anywhere else I could find ideas. I have a LOT of blogging to do...)